Dumping Powder By Weight

[Glenfilthie]

Fellas, would I be waisting my time to do it? Is it worth the hassle in your opinion?

My load development thus far has been to set the powder measure and go up in 5 grain increments and so far it has shown me my rifle seems to like 80 gr. of FF.

Should I get out the electric powder dispenser now and start going up in 1 grain increments?

 

[jtmattison]

Here's a very recent discussion that might answer that for you.

Powder Thread

:hatsoff:

HD

 

[chuck-ia]

Might depend on what and how you are shooting, I shoot a flintlock, offhand,usually 50 or 25 yards, I doubt I could tell a difference in a 15 gr. variance. Maybe if a guy was shooting a bench gun off a rest at 100 yards, a couple grains might make a difference on a calm day. just my oppinion. flinch

 

[Raider2000]

The only time I whip out my scale is when I'm making preloads to be sure of my self "tapping the same amount & what not" I'll dump a load into my scale to verify that I'm getting a consistent amount of powder in each load.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Point of impact can change with the change in temperature, and with change in humidity. For bench rest shooting, increasing and decreasing a favorite load a grain or two to get it back to POA is commonly done. For off-hand shooting, which is normally done at shorter ranges, its not commonly done. My brohter, for instance has a favored .40 caliber underhammer, and uses 40 grains of FFFg Goex in the gun with a PRB. He has had to adjust the powder charge down to 38 grains on one day, and a few weeks later up to 42 grains to get the gun shooting to its POA. He says most of these changes are done in 2 grain increments, but I suspect someone is doing it in one grain increments with the smaller bore guns. He has a new .28 caliber rifle, shooting 12 grains of FFFg powder, for almost 2,000 fps! Its very accurate at 25 yds, and on a calm day, at 50 yds, also. But add some wind, or stretch that range a bit, and the groups open up dramatically. He could hit a deer at 100 yds, but that small ball would simply break the skin, rather than travel deep enough to kill it. Maybe a shot in the ears to the brain would get the job done, but those kind of shots are made at much closer ranges, not out at 100 yds.

 

[crockett]

Muzzle Blasts a while ago had a short series of interview type articles asking competitive shooters what they did- these are the folks winning the matches. I don't think any of them weighed the charge. A good measure with an adjustable capability and a cut off top is fine.

 

[paulvallandigham]

It depends on the shooting matches, whether the shooters who win are weighing their powder charges, or simply using a volume measure. The Off-hand shooters rarely weigh their charges. The Bench Rest guys, more often than not, DO weigh the powder charges.

George Mitchell told me he sorts his bullets for his slug gun to ZERO tolerance. Every bullet is the exact same weight as the next. He weighs all his powder charges on his scales at home, and takes them to the range in separate containers.

 

[mazo kid]

If you are hitting your POA consistently, why go to the extra bother of weighing charges? Unless you are going to do long distance bench shooting, I see no reason for weighing. As long as you load consistently you can pretty much tell where your shots will hit.

 

[Zoar]

Glen---yeah, as others haev said it entirely depends on what distances and whether or not you are involved in a competitive level of shooting.

I know my 54 cal Lyman seems to shoot as good as I can shoot using Speer round balls over 90 grains of FFFg. Do I shoot 92 or 88 sometimes? Probably, but the bullets all go to the bullseye and for the level I am shooting at there is no reason to weigh my black powder. When I load cartridges sure I always weigh the powder to a tenth of a grain but that is an entirely different matter. It seems powder measures that measure by volume work fine for Black Powder muzzleloading at under 100 yards and in a non competitive situations.

 

[Glenfilthie]

Yup. I figured as much.

One of the reasons I got into black powder was to get away from the endless quest for accuracy that seems to consume modern shooters. Everything gets taken to the 'nth' degree, and all bow down to worship at the alter of accuracy.

Sometimes it is just time to have fun and let the lead fall where it may. I have my crappy spaghetti plains rifle doing about 4" at 100 yards off the bench. That is pretty darn good for me with this rifle and I should be happy with that.